F 



THE RELATIONS OF 
CHRISTIAN DENOMI 
NATIONS TO COLLEGES 

AN ADDRESS BEFORE THE CON 
TERENCE ON EDUCATION OF THE 
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 
SOUTH. AT ATLANTA, GA.. MAY 20 
I90S, BY HBJ^^V S\ 'PTtlTCHETT 




PRINTED AT NAaHVIi.i.£, X ti H f( TH S S HI K. 



The Relations of Chris 

tian Denominations 

to Colleges 



By Henry S. Pritchett 

President oj the Carnegie Foundation for the 
Advancement of Teaching 




An Address before the Conference on Education of the 

Methodist Episcopal Church, South, at 

Atlanta, Ga, May 20, 1908 



1 



MOV 23 )^m 



The Relations of Christian Denominations 

to Colleges 



In beginning a paper which concerns the relations of rehgious 
organizations to institutions of higher learning, I may perhaps 
be allowed a word in regard to the work and scope of the Carne- 
gie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. This new 
institution, but recently endowed by Mr. Andrew Carnegie with 
fifteen millions of dollars, is not a charitable institution, but an 
educational agency. It deals with colleges, universities, and 
technical schools in the United States, Canada, and Newfound- 
land, and is the only institution at the present moment which is 
directly concerned with the educational interests of the whole of 
English-speaking North America. 

The purpose of the Foundation is the service of higher educa- 
tion by strengthening and dignifying the calling of the teacher. 
It does this, directly, by the establishment of a retiring allowance 
system in such colleges and universities as may become eligible to 
its benefits. The professor in such an institution receives his re- 
tired pay through his college just as he receives his salary, in 
accordance with definite rules, as a right, not as a favor. In 
case of his death, his widow receives as a pension the half of the 
retiring salary to which her husband was entitled. 

Indirectly, the Foundation seeks tO' serve higher education and 
the cause of the teacher by insisting on the maintenance of reason- 
able and honest college standards in the institutions with which 
it deals, by publishing specific information concerning colleges 
and universities, by the discussion of educational questions, and 
in general by serving the part of a central agency in relation to 
educational interests in the United States, Canada, and New- 
foundland, 

In making this gift, Mr, Carnegie imposed upon his trustees 
the condition that the retiring allowance system should not be 
extended to teachers in institutions which are under the control 
of a sect, or which require their trustees, officers, or teachers to 
belong to a specified denomination. 



4 Relations of Christian Denominations to Colleges 

In making this condition, Mr. Carnegie has, however, sought 
to make clear both to his trustees and to the pubHc that he has 
no hostility to denominations. Least of all does he desire to 
hamper in any way the cause of religion. His purpose was to 
serve primarily the cause of education, and as a matter of edu- 
cational administration it has seemed tO' him unwise toi place a 
college under the control of another organization of whatever 
character; nor has he been able to convince himself that the im- 
position upon a college of a condition which limited the choice 
of trustees, officers, or teachers to a stated denomination was 
calculated to advance the larger interests of education. 

The trustees of the Foundation have endeavored to administer 
their trust in a liberal spirit, but without losing sight of the con- 
ditions which the charter imposed. Colleges having friendly and 
intimate relations with various denominations have been wel- 
comed to the benefits of the retiring allowance system, so^ long 
as these relations did not involve control of the college by a de- 
nominational body or the liiTiitation of the choice of trustees, ofii- 
cers, or teachers. 

The obligation of the trustees to administer the Foundation in 
accordance with the terms of its charter has, however, necessarily 
involved a careful examination of the relation of colleges to re- 
ligious bodies, the nature of the organization which this relation 
brings about, and its effect upon the standards and educational 
efficiency of such institutions. 

The inquiries started by the gift of Mr. Carnegie have raised 
certain fundamental ^questions in education which have for some 
years been pressing for consideration in all three of the countries 
interested in this gift. A fair consideration of them at this time 
will gO' far tO' clarify the educational conceptions of those in and 
out of the denominations, tO' fix the responsibility for the support 
of higher education, and in the end to advance the causes for 
which religious organizations and colleges exist. 

The fundamental questions which present themselves are these : 
What is meant by Christian education as applied to^ a college? 
What are the motives of the various Christian denominations 
(and in this administrative sense all Churches are denominations) 
in undertaking the support and control of colleges and universi- 



Relations of Christian Denominations to Colleges 5 

ties ? Is it a part of the legitimate work of every religious body 
tO' control a certain number of institutions of learning? Can a 
denomination exert a religious influence upon colleges without 
exercising legal control or without imposing restrictions in the 
choice of officers and teachers? These questions are of primary 
importance alike tO' the Churches and the colleges. 

Much confusion has heretofore existed as to just what is meant 
by Christian education — a confusion which arises partly out of 
the almost universal failure tO' discriminate between religion and 
Church membership, and partly out of a lack of appreciation of 
the intellectual strivings of the college and university student. 

The essentials of religion are the same whether men belong to 
one religious organization or another. Religion is a life spring- 
ing up in the human soul which blossoms intO' forgetfulness of 
self and in service of God and of men. This life exists with- 
out any reference to the denominational or ecclesiastical defini- 
tion of it. It has, in fact, to this formal expression much the 
same relation that the stars have tO' the science of astronomy, or 
that the flowers have to botany, or that the chemical reactions 
have to the text-books in chemistry. Now shall Christian edu- 
cation mean the effort tO' bring into the minds and into the lives 
of students the conception of religion as a life, or shall it mean 
the presentation of the forms of worship of a particular denomi- 
nation and the claims of a particular view of truth? And shall 
the methods by which these elemental relations are to be brought 
to the attention of college boys be those of the congregation, of 
the Sunday school, of the revival, or shall they take account of 
the intellectual processes through which the student is developing? 
Shall they be planned toi appeal more directly tO' the emotions or 
to the reason ? 

For the teaching of religion in a college cannot be divorced 
from educational consistency. Methods which contravene the in- 
tellectual ideals of trained students, or which fail to meet their 
honest inquiries, have a doubtful effect in the development of 
their characters. No member of society sets a higher value on 
intellectual sincerity than the youth w^ho is beginning to enjoy 
the processes of thinking. For this reason the religious ideals 
which will permanently affect his life are not likely to be created 



6 Relations of Christian Denominations to Colleges 

by any other methods than those which take hold of the funda- 
mental truths of rehgion, and which at the same time respect the 
student's intellectual aspirations. It may be entirely right to de- 
sire that a youth be converted to a certain experience of religious 
life, but to turn the college into an agency for such conversion is 
a very different matter. In a word, there is a clear distinction 
between education which is religious and that which is denomi- 
national. The one can be developed by personal religious leader- 
ship ; the other can be promoted by an organization. 

The motives which influence Christian organizations in under- 
taking the support and control of colleges in the New World 
have been varied. In the early days of the American Union and 
of Canada the representatives of Churches were the pioneers for 
education as well as for religion. As the country developed and 
communities became larger, the influences making toward denom- 
inational control of colleges have become more complex, and have 
not always been recognized by the general membership of these 
bodies. In fact, nothing is more striking than the confusion of 
mind which exists in the Protestant denominations as to the re- 
lations of their respective organizations to their colleges. The 
denominational yearbooks make little or no distinction between 
institutions under legal control of the denomination and those 
remotely related to it by traditional ties. 

The strongest motive which has operated in inducing denomi- 
nations to undertake the support and control of colleges is un- 
questionably the desire to propagate the faith for which the de- 
nomination stands. This motive is one which is not put forward 
so directly nor so distinctly as it was in the earlier days of Amer- 
ican education, when colleges were devoted more generally to^ the 
training of ministers. In American colleges to-day there are no 
denominational tests imposed upon students who' seek an educa- 
tion. A student may enter a college, whether he be Catholic or 
Protestant, of any religious faith or of no faith. The attitude of 
the Church which controls the college varies, however, in differ- 
ent institutions and in different denominations. In many col- 
leges the legal control which the denomination possesses is prac- 
tically outgrown. In a very large number, however, there runs 
through the college teaching and the college life the eft'ort to 



Relations of Christian Denominations to Colleges 7 

present to the student as religious truth the doctrinal view for 
which the denomination itself stands; and although with many- 
denominations this motive has become less prominent than it was 
a generation ago, I think it is still fair tO' say that, in a large pro- 
portion of colleges and universities which are under actual denom- 
inational control, the purpose of the denomination in maintaining 
its relation with the college is the advancement of the denomi- 
nation, the increase of its influence, the spread of its belief. This 
motive is none the less powerful because in many cases it is not 
consciously expressed or admitted. 

Another motive which has operated strongly with denomina- 
tions in bringing under their control colleges and universities is 
the need which has been felt for trained denominational leaders. 
Our earliest American colleges were founded for the training of 
preachers. Education at that day meant generally a preparation 
for only a few learned professions, of which the ministry was the 
most influential. Denominations still feel the need to maintain 
institutions which shall bring up from generation to generation 
leaders trained in their own ideals. 

Both of these motives are denominational, and both rest upon 
the desire of a denomination to maintain its own prestige, to in- 
crease its own power, and tO' extend in the world its particular 
view of religious truth. A college which is controlled under 
either of these conceptions is truly a denominational college, 
whether it is admittedly so or not, and must in the long run be 
supported by the religious organization which controls it. With 
neither of these motives is the average American citizen of reli- 
gious life and religious aspirations wholly in sympathy. 

The wish to bring religious influences into college life is also 
one which has played a part in inducing organized bodies of Chris- 
tians to undertake the control and support of colleges. How far 
this motive has had influence, it is difficult to say. 

There are various other influences which, while insignificant in 
themselves, have nevertheless operated to increase greatly the 
number of denominational institutions. Of these, the most evi- 
dent is denominational rivalry. This weakness of the denomina- 
tional relation to education has been taken advantage of by the 
children of the world to impose upon the children of light many 



8 Relations of Christian Denominations to Colleges 

educational ventures which are sometimes little better than real 
estate schemes. It has not infrequently happened that an ambi- 
tious promoter has induced an unsuspecting- denomination to as- 
sume the responsibility for a new college, which has proved in the 
end to be not only unnecessary but a weary load to carry. The 
offer of an attractive piece of real estate for educational purposes 
is one which few denominations have the strength to resist. The 
Presbyterians, for example, have very recently accepted the pat- 
ronage of a newly fledged college in Denver (called a univer- 
sity!), in a region already well supplied with colleges and in a 
city where a representative of Christian education was already 
in existence and having difficulty in finding sustenance. A large 
proportion of Protestant colleges are children by adoption. 

The reasons which have influenced the colleges to seek alli- 
ances with denominations are simpler. They are to be found in 
nearly all cases in the denominational ties of founders or in the 
desire of those who control colleges to secure a constituency 
whence students may be drawn. The second of these influ- 
ences has been the more common, and in various instances col- 
leges have been offered first to one and then to another denomi- 
nation in the expectation that, once a denomination was com- 
mitted to the college, the sons and daughters of those in the de- 
nomination could be counted upon as a source of supply for 
students. In no country outside of America does one see exactly 
the same aspect of college development which this custom has 
brought about. In the older countries a new institution of higher 
learning is founded only in response to the evident pressure for 
additional facilities as shown by the overcrowding of existing in- 
stitutions. In the United States we found a college for all sorts 
of reasons, and then look about for a supply of students to fill its 
halls. Only too often the process follows the example of the rich 
man in the parable whose dinner invitations were not accepted, 
and who finally sent out into the highways and haled in the halt, 
the lame, and the blind — in other words, those who were not pre- 
pared to pass the entrance examinations. 

No one who studies the history of American education will 
withhold from the Christian denominations a large measure of 
praise for the work in higher education which has been done in 



Relations of Christian Denominations to Colleges 9 

the past, either through them or through men who represent 
them. In the pioneer days Christian ministers were in the main 
those who raised up such institutions. They were the men who 
interested the pubHc in the cause of education ; and as one traces 
this movement through the decades of our national history, he 
will give due credit to this spirit. It has served not only to build 
many institutions which otherwise would never have been begun, 
but also through it there have been interested in education a 
great number of men and women who otherwise would never have 
felt the educational stir. All these things one concedes gladly. 
It is necessary, however, to remember that the pioneer days are 
past; that to-day education is being supported with increasing 
generosity by most oi the great States of the Union and of Cana- 
da;* that we need now not more colleges, but colleges that shall 
be sincere and honest and thorough. In a word, we have come to 
an older stage of our educational activity, and what might have 
been entirely justifiable fifty or even twenty-five years ago may 
require to-day serious revision. 

When the religious organizations of America first undertook 
to found colleges and to control them, the support of such institu- 
tions involved no serious draft on the energy of a denomination. 
The subjects taught were of a character which required little ex- 
penditure for libraries, laboratories, or experiment stations; the 
number of teachers needed was comparatively small. These teach- 
ers were in many cases ministers who obtained at least a part of 
their support by preaching. To-day, if a college is to be sup- 
ported as a genuine college, the expense is large; while the cost 
of maintaining a true university is out of all proportion to such 
obligations as were originally contemplated when the Churches 
undertook their support. In the last two decades Christian de- 
nominations -have found increasing difficulty in meeting those 
obligations, and the colleges controlled by them have, with few 

*The educational situation in Newfoundland is unique. Its educational 
policy has been to hand over education to the various denominations, the 
State appropriations for education being distributed among the Roman Cath- 
olics, Methodists, Presbyterians, and the Church of England. There are in 
St. John's several colleges, all under denominational control; but these in- 
stitutions are in effect high schools as compared with the colleges of Canada 
and the United States. 



lo Relations of Christian Denominations to Colleges 

exceptions, received a meager and inadequate support. All these 
considerations — the widespread diffusion of general education, 
the increased support given higher education by States and in- 
dividuals, the cost of modern methods of education — seem to 
mark the present time as one when Christian denominations may 
well consider afresh their obligations and relations to- higher edu- 
cation; when they should gain clear conceptions of what the 
Churches are to do for education and what that service involves, 
and should have for the future a clearly thought out and consist- 
ent plan for educational work which will commend itself to 
thoughtful men and which shall lead somewhither. 

Those who undertake such an inquiry meet at the threshold the 
fundamental question : Is the organization and support of colleges 
one of the agencies tO' which a Christian Church should direct 
part of its energy? This question is for those to answer who 
direct these organizations. Generally, the answer has been as- 
sumed without any very definite effort tO' examine it; but it is 
clear that the effect of denominational activity in colleges is one 
thing and the question whether this activity might more profita- 
bly be given in other directions is quite another. 

In any case it is not likely, under the conditions which govern 
human society, that the discussion of this question at this mo- 
ment will go beyond the academic stage. The Christian denom- 
inations are already involved with higher education. Their rela- 
tions with colleges and universities vary, it is true, from a rela- 
tion of complete ownership to a relation of sympathetic coopera- 
tion, from one of legal control to one of traditional friendship. 
The practical question, therefore, is : What relation may a Chris- 
tian Church have with an institution of higher learning which 
shall serve most effectively the cause of religion and the cause of 
education? For whatever serves these two causes will serve the 
true interests of the two organizations, the Church and the college. 

There seem to me but three positions which a denomination 
may take toward a college which are entirely honest and consist- 
ent, and no other solution of this relation than an entirely frank 
and consistent one will be accepted by the world or is likely to 
bear fruit. 

A Church may frankly say that, in order to carry out its legiti- 



Relations of Christian Denominations to Colleges ii 

mate work and advance its cause, it must control and direct a cer- 
tain number of institutions of higher learning in which men may- 
grow up trained in its ideals and devoted to its service. 

Secondly, a Christian organization may claim that it has both a 
right and a duty to control and conduct colleges on the ground 
of its fitness and efficiency as an educational agency. This claim 
of the Church was based in the past on the assumption of superior 
scholarly fitness ; in our day it is based on the ground of greater 
religious efficiency. 

Finally, a Christian organization may take the position that all 
colleges and universities, being influential agents in the training 
of men, are also agencies for moral and religious influence, and 
therefore the Church will seek by friendly cooperation, by sympa- 
thetic fellowship, by all the means of Christian activity, to make 
itself a religious influence in all institutions of the higher learning 
without assuming their control or support. 

Any denomination which takes a part in higher education will, 
either consciously or unconsciously, proceed in conformity to 
some one of these theories of action or a combination of them. 

Universities arose originally in response to a deep need of the 
time when the awakened scientific spirit of Europe began to stir 
among the people. They consisted at first of free associations of 
learned men and aspiring youths, held together by their common 
interest in learning. They arose independently of both Church 
and State, but the organization which represented the Christian 
Church of that day was quick to appreciate the value of the uni- 
versity as a part of the Church machinery. 

The conception of a college as an effective agency for continu- 
ing and extending the influence and power of a religious organi- 
zation is at least clear-cut and consistent. It is frankly accepted 
by some Churches to-day, and the theory is practiced by many 
others. 

It seems clear that any Church which, either under this theory 
or some other, assumes control of a college must expect to be re- 
sponsible for its support. Authority to control will more and 
more in the future be held tO' carry with it the obligation to 
support. 

That Christian denominations will find this burden a more and 



12 Relations of Christian Denominations to Colleges 

more difficult one to csivrj seems also clear. For unless the de- 
nominational college can offer adequate educational facilities, it 
will lose in power and influence, and will inevitably drop behind 
in standards. The education offered by such a college will fall 
below the measure of other strong colleges. 

There is another side to this responsibility which is seldom 
thought of, and that is the burden which college begging puts 
upon the shoulders O'f an already overworked pastor. One sees 
in America somewhat diverse efforts to support higher education, 
but nothing more sincerely rouses one's sympathies than the sight 
of a Methodist pastor, on meager salary, upon whose shoulders 
has been officially laid the obligation to beg money for the Church 
college. This is a very different effort from the struggle of the 
pioneer preacher to sow the seeds of educational interest. I ques- 
tion the wisdom or the justice of imposing this load. I should be 
far more pleased in this day to see an effort inaugurated tO' give 
to such a pastor the protection of a retiring salary, such as is now 
offered to college teachers, to the end that, by lifting from his 
shoulders the uncertainty of old age and want, there may be at- 
tracted into a noble calling in increasing numbers men of the high- 
est ability and of the ripest religious and educational develop- 
ment. 

Those who urge upon denominations the policy of founding 
and adopting colleges will need in the future to reckon more 
closely with the economic side of college support, and particu- 
larly with the relation of cost to good teaching. The calling of 
the college professor, like that of the preacher, has suffered in 
late years by the relatively large attractions of other professions. 
However true it may be that the altruistic motive must influence 
the man who chooses the life of the teacher, it is still true that 
one cannot consider the calling of the teacher apart from its eco- 
nomic function. The financial recompense of the best teachers 
cannot be made comparable to that of the best lawyers, but it can 
be raised to what might be called the line of comfort; and in 
addition, the teacher's position is greatly strengthened by the pro^ 
tection of a retiring allowance system which provides for his 
own old age and for* his widow. This strengthening of the teach- 
er's calling by better pay and a retiring allowance is absolutely 



Relations of Christian Denominations to Colleges 13 



necessary, if the best men are to be drawn into that profession. 
Denominations which conduct and control colleges will find it 
quite as necessary to raise salaries and to provide retiring allow- 
. ances as other colleges. The following table, made up from data 
furnished by American and Canadian colleges, shows that at the 
present time denominational colleges are far behind other insti- 
tutions in these respects. The table presents comparative statis- 
tics for three groups of institutions. Group A includes institu- 
tions under control of a denomination, or which require denomi- 
national tests in the choice of trustees, officers, or teachers ; Group 
B includes institutions which are tax-supported and controlled 
by State or provincial governments, such as State universities and 
land-grant colleges ; Group C includes institutions having no legal 
connection with denominations or State governments. These 
three groups include nearly all of the institutions in the United 
States and Canada* whose work is strictly of college grade. The 
teachers for whom salary schedules are given are college teachers. 
Teachers in professional departments of universities are not in- 
cluded. 



Table of the Average Salaries of Full Professors in the College 

Departments of American and Canadian Degree-Conferring 

Institutions of Collegiate Grade. 

Grouped According to Methods of Government. 



Number of 
Institutions. 



Number of 
F"ull Professors. 



Average Salary 
of Full Professor. 



Group A 
Group B 
Group C 



127 
73 
95 



1,447 
1,403 
1,609 



$1,534 
2,167 
2,441 



This table gives a comparison far more favorable to denomi- 
national colleges than would be had by the inclusion of the great 
number of institutions with lower standards. 

In more than one hundred of the denominational colleges which 
have furnished statistical information the average salary of a 
teacher is less than $1,000 a year, and in seventeen of these the 



*0f the whole number, 286 are American and 9 are Canadian. 
J** 



14 Relations of Christian Denominations to Colleges 

average salary is $500 or less. A large proportion of the weaker 
denominational colleges have failed to furnish the statistical in- 
formation asked for by the Foundation. 

The table is notably defective in one respect: it omits entirely 
the statistics for the Roman Catholic colleges and universities. 
This omission, however, is unavoidable, since it is impossible tO' 
compare the cost O'f teaching in institutions where teaching is an 
economic function with that in institutions where the teachers 
serve in the main without salary. But this fact itself is one O'f 
great significance in the discussion of this question. The Roman 
Catholic Church has in education, as in other fields, a well- 
thought-out policy. It has met the problem of educational ad- 
ministration with full appreciation of the fact that, if it meant to 
control colleges and to use them as agencies for propagation of 
the faith, it must secure teachers who were independent of the 
ordinary financial obligations. Its college professors are, there- 
fore, recruited from priests or from members O'f celibate religious 
orders. These teachers could, however, not be drafted for this 
service if they were compelled tO' face the possibility of being 
turned out in old age upon the tender mercies of an indifferent 
world. 

The experience of Protestant and Catholic colleges alike goes 
to show that when a denomination controls a college it must soon- 
er or later assume responsibility for its support without any large 
amount of outside assistance. No denomination can in the future 
expect toi control a college and at the same time call on the public 
to support it. 

To' one who seeks to study education from the standpoint of 
the educational problems and needs of a State, a province, or a 
continent, the theory which requires each Church tO' control its 
quota of colleges has serious educational faults unless denomina- 
tions are willing tO' act in harmony in carrying out a common edu- 
cational policy — a result apparently not to* be anticipated in the 
near future. The primary objection lies in the multiplication of 
colleges and the consequent lowering of standards which such a 
policy must bring about. If every denomination must have its 
share of colleges in order to accomplish its own ends, denomina- 
tional competition will inevitably produce the educational evils to 



Relations of Christian Denominations to Colleges 15 

which I have just referred. In fact, this is exactly what has oc- 
curred in the United States, and to a less extent in Canada. 

There are in the United States alone nearly one thousand insti- 
tutions calling themselves colleges. Of these, over one-half are 
colleges in name only, and in many cases are doing the work of 
elementary or secondary schools under the name of college. In a 
similar way weak colleges assume the name university. 

This has come about primarily from the local, State, and de- 
nominational rivalries in college-building and the lack of coop- 
eration among them. It is due in the United States in part to 
the entire absence of educational supervision of higher education. 
In most States of the Union any association of men can incorpo- 
rate under the general law and organize a "college" or a "univer- 
sity," maintaining such standards as their inclinations and inter- 
ests may suggest. Such institutions have the legal power to^ confer 
all the degrees which the most honored and most scrupulous uni- 
versity can offer. 

In Canada the degree-giving power is much more carefully 
guarded. In the new province of Manitoba, for example, colleges 
may be formed under the general law, but degrees can be con- 
ferred only through the Provincial University, which is an edu- 
cational board somewhat similar to the University of the State 
of New York. The degrees for all colleges in the province, 
whether they be denominational or not, are conferred through 
this Board. Under the Board are organized at present a Roman 
Catholic college, a Presbyterian college, a Methodist college, and 
a college of the Church of England. Such a policy tends toward 
maintenance of the accepted standards by all colleges, and takes 
away any possibility tO' traffic in degrees. It also' tends tO' adjust 
the number of colleges tO' the needs and resources of the State 
or province. 

A general belief exists among the people of the United States 
that the founding of a new college is always a gain to- education ; 
that the more colleges, the more education. No other organized 
bodies have pushed this theory sO' far as the religious bodies. The 
denominations compete not only with other denominations in edu- 
cation, but in many cases a denomination in a given State com- 
petes with itself. Thus the State of Iowa contains six institutions 



i6 Relations of Christian Denominations to Colleges 

of higher education in organic connection with the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. The combined revenues of these six institu- 
tions equal approximately that of Vanderbilt University. It is 
apparent that here has been a great dissipation of educational 
energy. A strong denomination may, by a united effort, build up 
a great college in a given State or region, which, by the excellence 
of its teachers and the completeness of its facilities, may not only 
serve its students well, but may also, by its standing and prestige, 
touch the imagination of many youths who otherwise would not 
look toward the college life. When, however, the denomination 
allows local and personal rivalries to divide its effort among a 
number of enterprises, the opportunity for leadership vanishes 
and educational mediocrity is accepted. 

Mr. Bryce, in "The American Commonwealth," has very justly 
paid a high tribute to the small American college. There can be 
no doubt that the small college, set down in many communities, 
has been a powerful factor in American progress. This does not, 
however, affect the truth of the statement that the multiplication 
of colleges without due regard to educational needs and support 
means dilution of education and superficiality of standards. There 
could be no' greater mistake than to assume that the enormous 
growth in so-called colleges during the past three decades is an 
unmixed good. Educational sincerity has been hurt, not helped, 
in many localities when a good academy or high school is made 
impossible by the effort to conduct a sham college; or when a 
good college is sacrificed in the attempt to sustain an imitation 
university. While it is true that the college, under right condi- 
tions, is the most effective agency hitherto established for the 
moral and intellectual training of youth, it is also^ true that there 
is no other agency in which stones may be more successfully fed 
to human souls instead of bread. No' publications, unless they be 
those of life insurance companies, have been more misleading 
than American college catalogues. If any man doubt this, let him 
visit a number of colleges and compare the claims of the catalogues 
with the realities. 

No one who looks into the history of our own country and of 
other countries can doubt that, while it is desirable to bring to 
each individual in the body politic the appreciation of higher edu- 



Relations of Christian Denominations to Colleges 17 

cation, and to instill in him a desire to obtain its advantages, that 
object is attained not by the indiscriminate multiplicaton of col- 
leges, but by the development of a reasonable number of strong 
colleges, and perhaps more than all else in a great State by the 
development of an institution which by its dignity, its traditions, 
and its influence as a moral and educational center affects the 
imagination and invites the aspirations of youth. There is no 
part of our own country in which education has taken such a hold 
upon the ideals and the strivings of its citizens as in New England, 
and yet there are fewer colleges in New England than in any 
other part of the Union having an equal population. Many a 
Western or Southern State has more colleges than Massachusetts, 
and Ohio has more colleges than all the New England States 
combined. 

For the future, therefore, it seems clear that any religious body 
which proceeds on the theory that the college is a necessary part 
of its own machinery must give study to- the economic side of edu- 
cational administration, must avoid dissipation of its resources, 
and above all must conduct an educational institution under its 
control with regard to the general system of education of the 
State and of the nation. 

The second reason for control of colleges to which I have re- 
ferred is the one generally given by Protestant denominations for 
entering the field of higher education, although usually somewhat 
differently worded. The duty to provide religious education, in 
whatever form that may be expressed, involves, however, the as- 
sumption that a denomination believes itself to have educational 
efficiency ; otherwise there would be no duty to embark in educa- 
tional work. In order that the world should accept this claim, it 
will be necessary to show that the real interest of religious organ- 
izations in college development is religious, not denominational, 
and that officers and teachers selected under denominational au- 
thority or sectarian choice are on the whole more efficient educa- 
tional and religious leaders. I have no question that every Chris- 
tian denomination is sincere in believing that it seeks to promote 
a religious, not a denominational, college. The actual administra- 
tion of colleges has, however, been conducted in entire contraven- 
tion of this theory. The Methodists of a given neighborhood do 



i8 Relations of Christian Denominations to Colleges 

not turn to and build up a Presbyterian college already estab- 
lished and which is ample for the educational needs of the region, 
notwithstanding the fact that it stands for Christian education. 
They gO' to. work generally to secure a competing college of their 
own. One of the most common objections urged against the 
abandonment of legal denominational control of colleges is fear 
lest they fall into the hands of competing denominations. 

One college president writes that his trustees would be glad to 
drop formal legal denominational relations, already practically 
obsolete, but fear another enterprising denomination may "steal" 
the college. Another brother, speaking in the breezy language 
of the Southwest, says : "When a college down here gets loose, 
some denomination ropes it and puts its brand on. We don't have 
any educational mavericks in this part of the world." 

The truth is, the world is not ready to accept the theory that 
control of a college by a denomination means religious rather than 
denominational influence, until Christian denominations have 
themselves so far developed in religious spirit that they are will- 
ing to cooperate in founding and supporting colleges. 

Can scholars who are at the same time religious leaders be 
secured more surely for college places by placing the college under 
the control of a denomination or by requiring officers and teach- 
ers to be members of a stated religious body ? 

This question goes back to the fundamental question as to the 
meaning of Christian education, and it reaches out to touch the 
further question whether it is wise administration for an organi- 
zation like a college to be controlled by another organization. The 
world cannot forget one long and costly experiment, that of turn- 
ing over to the Church civil power on the ground that this power 
ought to be in the hands of religious men. No one questions that 
this is true : the difficulty was in supplying men who would govern 
from the standpoint of religion, not from the standpoint of the 
organization which they represented. The outcome of this ex- 
periment was demoralization for both State and Church. 

The fundamental objection to such a method of selecting men 
for college officers or teachers lies in the fact that the criterion 
is repugnant alike to the religious and to the educational stand- 
ards of our age. Men who are religious in the best and deepest 



Relations of Christian Denominations to Colleges 19 

sense^ — the sense which qualifies for educational leadership — are 
not segregated in conformity with denominational lines. They 
belong to the Church invisible and universal. 

For similar reasons it goes against the very spirit of intellectual 
freedom for which a college or a university stands to put into its 
charter denominational tests in the choice of officers or teachers. 

It would be difficult to show from the experience of the past 
that the factor of denominational selection has any relation to the 
religious and educational betterment of the colleges. To bring 
to the head of a college, or as a teacher in it, a man of high 
scholarship who is at the same time a truly religious man, is to 
bring into the college the best educational factor possible. No 
endowment, no laboratory, no building, however noble or useful, 
can equal the value oi such a president or such a teacher. Unfor- 
tunately, we have no specifics by which such a man can be ob- 
tained. No organization among men is able to guarantee that 
its members shall be either religious men or scholars. 

In one respect, at least, it is clear that denominational control 
has not justified itself in educational institutions. This is in the 
lack of any relation between denominational control and educa- 
tional righteousness. Denominations have been slow tO' realize 
the effect upon the world of the realization of this fact. 

A true college, whether it be administered by one set of men 
or another, must be first of all educationally sincere. It will not 
have one standard of admission in its catalogue and practice a 
lower one in admitting students to its classes ; it will not announce 
high-sounding courses of study in order to attract students and 
put the conduct of such courses into the hands of incompetent 
boys ; it will not preach honesty to the world and fail to pay its 
teachers the salaries it has agreed to pay. In a word, the world 
judges the quality of the religious influence of a denomination 
by the educational sincerity of the college which is put forward 
to represent it. And neither the sermons preached to students 
nor the quality of the official college piety will be accepted as an 
excuse for educational unrighteousness. And this is just. 

It is one of the weaknesses of the denominational connection 
that the influence of the organization has rarely been thrown in 
the direction of increasing the sincerity of the college standards : 



20 Relations of Christian Denominations to Colleges 

and where good standards have been set up in denominational 
colleges, they mark in nearly every case the work of an individual, 
not the influence of the organization. It is not too much to say 
that sectarianism in education has flourished generally v^here col- 
lege standards were low, and as a college has raised its education- 
al standards it has almost invariably dropped sectarian tests. This 
is true not only of colleges controlled by religious sects, but it is 
equally true of sectarian colleges controlled by organizations mak- 
ing no claim to religious purpose. Medical education in this coun- 
try is in a low state, and this is due in large measure tO' the rival- 
ries of the various medical sects, each clamoring for a separate 
medical school and for special privileges in each State. New 
York has solved this question by refusing to recognize any sect 
in medicine and requiring all medical schools to maintain the same 
standard. Just as soon as the same educational standard is re- 
quired of all medical schools, it becomes a matter of small moment 
whether they call themselves allopaths, homeopaths, osteopaths, 
or adopt some other name from medical sectarianism. The Coun- 
cil of the American Medical Association has most wisely taken 
the position that so' long as a medical college will hold high stand- 
ards the Council will recognize it without regard to the particular 
name it chooses to take. It is an encouraging thing tO' see a con- 
ference like this, gathered by a great denomination, casting its 
influence for better college standards. And I venture to repeat 
the statement that true college standards do' not mean necessarily 
the highest possible academic requirements as printed in the cata- 
logue. They mean reasonable standards, honestly lived up to. 
If a Church connection does not help toward this end, the connec- 
tion is not worth much to the college and does little honor to the 
Church. 

The temptation to secure students at the sacrifice of education- 
al virtue is common to all American colleges ; but a denomination, 
when it goes into educational competition with a rival denomina- 
tion or dissipates its energy among competing institutions, lays 
in the path of its colleges extraordinary temptations to education- 
al unfaithfulness. 

Most denominational colleges make discriminations in the pay- 
ment of college fees in favor of certain classes of students — for 



Relations of Christian Denominations to Colleges 21 

example, students who announce their intention to study for the 
ministry. Any man who has had to do with the distribution of 
trust funds to young men knows how quickly such discrimina- 
tions affect the point of view of the student body and how diffi- 
cult it is to favor certain students by financial assistance without 
doing more harm than good. If there is any one man who needs 
to learn to stand on his own feet throughout his whole life, it is 
he who aspires to the calling of the minister. 

Throughout many colleges in the West and South — both de- 
nominational and State institutions — the rivalry for students has 
led to a most undignified system of student solicitation. Not only 
are students sought out and urged to go tO' this or that college, 
but tuition fees are shaded until a sharp parent can often secure 
a large reduction in the first year's tuition, if not its entire remis- 
sion. This whole process is thoroughly demoralizing, and there 
is nothing in American education comparable to it, except that 
form of college graft which has prevailed in a number of institu- 
tions in all parts of the Union, under which successful athletes are 
safely steered intO' college and university athletic teams. 

With the financial side of such transactions the ministers of a 
given denomination have little to do. They are expected, how- 
ever, in many cases to solicit students — a situation which is not 
always the most helpful for a minister to occupy, and which limits 
in certain directions his influence. 

It is a fine thing to find in any community a pastor so cultured 
that he becomes an influence for the higher education and is right- 
ly consulted by parents as to the college which their sons and 
daughters ought to attend. Such a man will advise a boy to go 
whither he may find the most fruitful place for his own spiritual 
and intellectual development. In such a relation, as an impartial 
educational adviser, the minister stands on a plane consistent 
with his high calling. He comes before the people in a very dif- 
ferent light when he becomes an agent for securing funds or for 
soliciting students for a particular college. The incongruity is 
all the greater if the minister is himself a man of limited education 
and lacking in scholarly qualities. 

Speaking generally, therefore, it may be said that when the 
Church — as represented by any religious organization — under- 



22 Relations of Christian Denominations to Colleges 

takes the work of education, it gives new hostages to public judg- 
ment. The world will judge the quality of the religion for which 
it stands by the educational efficiency of the colleges by which it 
is represented. It is not enough that the officers of a Church col- 
lege should be good Church members, or even pious men in the 
ordinary meaning of the term. They must show in the conduct 
of their institutions that the religion which they represent is able 
not simply tO' give a religious flavor to ordinary college courses, 
but that it serves also' the cause of educational righteousness and 
educational efficiency. 

Can a Christian denomination exert an influence for true reli- 
gion upon the higher institutions without legal control over them 
and without undertaking their support? 

To my thinking, not only is this possible, but in a relation of 
cooperation, of friendliness, and of sympath)^ to all institutions of 
the higher learning, the Christian denominations will find a far 
wider field for the association of religion with education than can 
be found in the control of the limited number of institutions which 
they can efficiently support. 

Christian denominations are organized bodies, in which the 
purpose of the organization contemplates the common good of its 
members and an organized effort for others. In carrying out this 
effort, the organization called a Church has to deal with many 
other organizations in the world — governments, parties, corpora- 
tions, labor unions, colleges, schools, societies for benevolent pur- 
poses, and many others. It desires to exert upon the men em- 
braced in all these organizations a religious influence, to bring 
home to them the obligations and the opportunities of the religious 
life. It is just as desirable for the members of a Christian Church 
to hold up Christian ideals to those who are in government rela- 
tions, or who belong to great corporations or to labor unions, as 
it is to bring these ideals to college students. And yet the Church- 
es will not consider it desirable, in order to accomplish this ob- 
ject, to control governments or corporations or labor unions. It 
will seek to accomplish its purpose by helpful cooperation, by 
Christian friendliness, by sympathetic fellowship. Is there any 
stronger reason why a Christian organization should control a 
college, if its purpose is religious, not denominational ? 



Relations of Christian Denominations to Colleges 2^ 

Under this conception the way is open to influence all colleges 
and all universities, not those alone which are labeled with the 
name of some denomination. Nothing could be more short- 
sighted than to^ assume that the Churches are tO' have relations 
only with those institutions which have denominational labels. 
The attitude of the denominations toward the State universities 
has been in the past oftentimes unfriendly, not to say unchristian; 
and yet in these great institutions are to be found to-day the 
largest groups of students from Christian homes. In my native 
State, Missouri, if one wished to meet the greatest number of 
students from Methodist or Presbyterian homes, he would not 
go to the Methodist college at Fayette or the Presbyterian college 
at Fulton, but to the State University at Columbia. Are the 
Christian Churches to sit down and assume that they have no re- 
lations with the great groups of students at the State universities 
because they cannot prescribe the forms of worship? There is no 
reason why Christian education should not be as characteristic oi 
a State college as of any other, if by Christian education one 
means instruction in the underlying fundamental truths of reli- 
gion. In truth, there are State institutions which maintain about 
them a religious atmosphere both sincere and inspiring. The 
State draws a line, and rightly, at religious instruction which 
means denominational instruction ; and one reason for its precau- 
tion is the fact that institutions of learning have for so many 
centuries been used by Christian Churches for the purpose of 
their own organizations. To-day in America the question as to 
whether the Churches can reach students in the colleges hangs 
largely on the ability of these bodies to work along religious rath- 
er than denominational lines, to influence by moral power, not by 
legal control. 

There are many who claim, and most sincerely, that this is 
impossible ; that a certain amount of partisanship is necessai-y to 
the vitality of any organization, whether it be religious, political, 
or educational. 

It is true that partisanship plays a part in leadership, but it 
plays a smaller and smaller part in proportion as he who seeks to 
lead and those whom he seeks to influence rise in the scale of in- 
telligence and virtue. Partisanship will count less as religion and 



24 Relations of Christian Denominations to Colleges 

right thinking are more widespread. But if we are still not suffi- 
ciently advanced to dispense with a large measure of partisanship 
in the effort to advance religion, this fact would form the best 
possible argument why the partisans of one organization should 
not control another. 

The fundamental objections, therefore, to. the control of a col- 
lege by a denomination seem tO' me to lie in the very conditions 
of our human nature and in the facts of our human experience. 
Whatever one's faith may be as to the origin and nature of the 
Christian Church, he must recognize that both the denomination 
and the college are human organizations. Long experience has 
proved that it is rarely wise to give over the conduct of any in- 
stitution to an organization whose purpose in conducting the 
institution is a secondary one. no matter how admirable the mo- 
tives or purposes of the organization be. 

The policies which are likely to be pursued in the future seem, 
therefore, to lie along two clearly marked paths. 

A religious organization may say frankly that it finds the col- 
lege a necessary part of its machineiy. It, therefore, will assume 
both, control and support of such colleges as it needs. 

On the other hand, a religious organization may say : "Our pur- 
pose in dealing with a college arises out of an interest in religion, 
not out of our desire to advance our organization. We will, there- 
fore, have fellowship with as many colleges as possible without 
seeking their control or undertaking the responsibility of their 
support." 

Whatever else may be the Church's duty, whether it ought to 
give its energy to^ the support and control of colleges or not, this 
much seems clear: the Church needs to-day to appropriate to its 
own use, in the training of its own men, the facilities for general 
education provided in colleges. The world needs tO'-day efficient 
religious leadership. The man who aspires to. such leaderships — 
whether he deal with wage-earners or millionaires, with business 
men or college students — must be educated in the highest and 
largest sense. If any branch of the Christian Church is to grow 
in the efficiency of its religious leadership, it must draw into- its 
service in increasing proportions men whose education is sincere, 
thorough, and broad. That end is the more likely to be gained, 



Relations of Christian Denominations to Colleges 25 

to my thinking, in proportion as the bodies of organized Chris- 
tianity succeed in relating themselves to all institutions of learn- 
ing along the lines of religious rather than denominational sym- 
pathy. 

The question as to the best form of relation between a college 
and a denomination has become, under the conditions which have 
recently arisen, a very practical one for the colleges as well as for 
the denominations. However the question may be settled in the 
case of any particular college, it is above all to be desired that it 
be settled in full consideration of all the obligations which have 
been assumed. No gain in college support can compensate for a 
loss in college integrity. 

On the other hand, denominations owe it to their own work 
and to these colleges tO' face the situation squarely and in full view 
of what is involved. It is no part of Christian education tO' hold 
control of a college and leave it tO' starve. 

Nor ought this question, in my judgment, whether settled in 
the one way or the other, tO' disturb the friendly relations between 
a denomination and a college which has grown up under its nur- 
ture and been inspired by its spirit. The situation is somewhat 
analogous to that of the youth who, in his minority, has been con- 
trolled and supported by his father, but who, when he comes to 
the years of maturity, assumes the obligations and responsibili- 
ties which go with citizenship. When that time comes, the father 
may well say to him : "Through all these years I have nourished 
and supported you and controlled you. The time has now come 
when you must control yourself, and with that control you will 
naturally assume your own support. The time can never come 
when you can go beyond my sympathy, my cooperation, and, so 
far as possible, my aid. The bonds between us shall be as sym- 
pathetic, as friendly, as full of affection as you will allow them to 
be ; but you have now come into the freedom and intO' the responsi- 
bilities of a man. I can help you best by giving you frankly that 
freedom and asking of you only such allegiance as affection may 
suggest." 

In some such way, as it seems to me, the denomination which 
desires that its college shall not be a field for propaganda, but 
rather an opportunity for a larger educational life, will give to it 



26 Relations of Christian Denominations to Colleges 

the freedom of self-control and trust tO' the influences of its tradi- 
tional friendship and affection for the ties which shall keep^ col- 
lege and denomination in touch. Under such a relation, the de- 
nomination is likely to affect the college life in just such propor- 
tion as its spirit is religious rather than sectarian ; and from this 
standpoint the interests of education and of religion lie along the 
same path. 

I venture to express the hope that the discussion of this ques- 
tion may lead toward clearer conceptions of the true work of a 
denomination and of a college; that the outcome may tend to a 
wider appreciation of the fundamental truths of religion and to 
a greater educational efficiency. Toward these ends all earnest 
and right-thinking men are working in common, whether they 
deal with education from the one side or the other. And in such 
measure as they are sincere and are clear thinkers, they are likely 
to come to common ground, if not tO' a single view of truth. 

In the fourteenth century was founded a brotherhood devoted 
to the work of education among the poor and known as the 
Brethren of the Common Life. Above all, the brotherhood de- 
voted itself to religious education. By the fine and self-sacrificing 
life of its members it grew in favor and in influence. Gradually 
the order extended its work to higher education, and counted 
among its pupils Erasmus and Luther. Eventually, having served 
its purpose, it blended with the general educational movement 
which brought about the revival of learning and the rise of the 
universities. 

Education on this new continent is a common work. Neither 
nations nor colleges nor men live to themselves. Every college, if 
it be a true college, must relate itself tO' the general problem of 
education of its State and of its nation. Every man who' works 
sincerely in education must make the cause of education the pri- 
mary one. So long as we work sincerely, heartily, intelligently in 
this spirit, we are all partakers in a common work, we are all 
Brethren of the Common Life, willing that our individual efforts 
shall fuse into the great current of educational power, so' long as 
that power works to the upbuilding of men. 



